Oct
Compassion Is A Tool
Well, I have been riding high for two days now with my Overcoming Negativity Addiction Program, really having a good time with my favorite vibe switch of “Holding the Compassion Note” when anyone does anything I perceive as rude, defensive, indifferent, or unkind, instead of indulging the “hurt feeling” chemicals that used to enter my bloodstream as a result of their behavior, I now do two things.
1. I notice I am triggered by their behavior by saying to myself “Just got triggered”.
2. I shift into seeing it all from their perspective and realizing that they are probably experiencing uncomfortable chemicals in their system if they’re feeling anything but loving. I immediately decide that they deserve my compassion, not my anger/hurt/whatever and I shift gracefully into feeling compassion because they, whether they know it or not, are also dealing with negative emotions in the body that don’t feel good.
When I do what I call this “ONA two-step”, I feel like I can happily be around anyone because I feel I can gracefully manage my emotional states around them without letting their behavior trigger me indulging my addiction to those not fun chemicals of anger/hurt/etc. in my system.
Macha said it the best on our radio show the other night. She said that with ONA, she feels like she’s “surfing her own emotions”.
That’s exactly how it starts to feel. Like you’re able to stay happy no matter what anyone around you is doing or not doing. It’s the most empowering feeling of all, being able to stay in love with everybody, no matter how they are treating me.
I find that holding the compassion note for others works best when I realize that we are all wired the same physiologically and that none of our systems actually enjoy those negative stress chemicals and that, since these emotions are physically addictive, I can cut these people a break for being in the addiction.
It’s interesting that we do seem to have compassion for people who are chain smokers, because we know what they are doing to their lungs from smoking but they can’t seem to stop. We see that it’s difficult to quit doing because their body is craving the nicotine. It would behoove us to have that same kind of compassion for the person in our life who is chronically angry, depressed, insensitive, or anxious as well, because their body is just as addicted to those chemicals as the smoker is to the cigarette.
So, this week, let’s all try holding the compassion note for the difficult people we encounter. Compassion does our body good.
Hey. Maybe I’ll make a tee-shirt. “Compassion. It does a body good.”
Love and Happy Bio-Chemicals,
Denise
